Across a Lightly Clawed Gameboard
by Lucillia
Summary: A Go genius of the Heian meets a prodigy of the Kamakura in the modern day and Hikaru makes a brand new foul-mouthed friend.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Hikaru No Go or Inuyasha.

The class had thought that the young Shindo boy who'd pulled off the class bully's wig and sent him running had been the most interesting thing to happen to it so far, until the white haired boy wearing an outfit straight out of a historical film and a hat better suited for an American trucker was dragged in by a junior high student who had altered the skirt of her uniform to the point that it was almost indecent, and would be indecent if she ran or jumped.

"I don't need to learn how to play Go!" the boy howled.

"I told you Inuyasha, I need to study. I can't study if you're constantly bothering me, so if you insist on coming back with me you need to find something to do. This class was relatively cheap, and I don't have to buy any equipment for it since Grandpa keeps an old Go board in the closet at home. The fact that you'll have to sit still and be quiet for hours on end is a bonus as far as I'm concerned." the junior high girl said.

"I don't need to learn how to play Go!" the boy howled again.

"You need something to do all day if you insist on hanging around, and I already signed you up for the class." the girl hollered back.

In response, the boy stormed towards the front of the class where the teacher was preparing to present the first problem of the day for his mostly middle-aged students to solve.

"You!" the boy said as he grabbed the teacher whom he promptly started dragging toward one of the tables.

"Sit." the boy said as he pulled out one of the chairs and shoved the hapless teacher into it.

The boy then hopped over the table, and seated himself in the chair opposite the one in which he shoved the teacher. Once seated, the boy snapped open the foldable Go board and shoved the container with the black stones at the teacher.

"Play." the boy said impatiently.

The slightly shaken teacher set the first stone down almost tentatively.

The boy set the first white stone down in an almost contemptuous manner.

Thus started one of the greatest trouncings that the Go class had ever seen.

"Makemashta" the teacher said thirty minutes into the game.

"I told you I didn't need to learn how to play Go! If you ask me to paint, do calligraphy, or play the Koto or the Biwa your family won't find all of the pieces of you even if they searched for a thousand years!" Yelled the red garbed stranger called Inuyasha as he got up to leave.

&!&!*!&!&

Inuyasha growled as he stormed out of the community center. Once again, Kagome had brought up issues he'd rather not deal with without realizing it.

His grandfather had ordered that he be properly educated to "prevent him from being a further embarrassment to the family". Practically from the day he first sat up, he had had many lessons drilled into him repeatedly. Amongst those numerous lessons had been the Four Accomplishments.

He'd hated his Biwa and Koto instructor with a passion. And from that hate, sprung a hate for the instruments themselves.

Painting and Calligraphy had no practical uses in the real world outside of the Court, so he quit practicing once he left or was kicked out upon his mother's death rather. He wasn't as illiterate as Kagome thought him to be, he just didn't like reading. That, and "modern" Japanese was...confusing.

Go however...

His mother had been the one to teach him how to play Go, and he hadn't played since she had died. It had partially been because he hadn't wanted to play for a long while, but mainly it was because nobody would play with him.

He'd almost forgotten how much he'd enjoyed the game.

(**!**)

Even though Inuyasha wasn't accepted by his family, the fact of the matter is that he was at least partially raised in a Court - whether that of a Daimyo, that of a Shogun, or the Imperial court in Kyoto itself is unknown to me at this time - and therefore he most likely would have picked up something of the Four Accomplishments (Playing Go, Painting, Calligraphy, and playing the Lute [there were several stringed instruments that fell into that category]) whether or not anybody besides his mother would have bothered to teach him since the Four Accomplishments were seen as a sign of education and refinement. Canonically, Inuyasha was born sometime in the Kamakura Era which was from 1185 to 1333.


	2. Chapter 2

Toya Koyo had walked into his Go Salon expecting a peaceful couple of hours of filling out some necessary paperwork before he played a few teaching games with the patrons. He did not expect to find his son being manhandled by a juvenile delinquent whose taste in clothes was even more archaic than his own. The teenager's hat which had apparently been purchased at a gas station somewhere however brought up memories of his one trip to America that he'd much rather forget...he could still hear that godawful banjo music in his nightmares.

How the hell that trucker who picked him and his wife up after the rental car broke down got "Professional Banjo Player" out of Professional Go Player, he didn't know. All he knew, was that he ended up being stuck at a very filthy rest stop listening to something that sounded like a badly out of tune Shamisen being played very poorly while he waited for the mechanic. To make matters worse, his wife had eventually pulled out her Shamisen - which he sincerely regretted retrieving from the trunk of the rental - and he had been treated to what had to be the absolute worst rendition of "Dueling Banjos" in the history of that particular piece of music.

"Komi! I'll show you Komi!" the white haired teenager who was crouched on one of the tables next to a finished game holding his son up off the ground by the front of his shirt yelled.

Looking at the game, it seemed that his son had won by a point and a half if the teenager's complaints about komi were any indication.

He walked behind the teenager and placed a hand on the boy's shoulder, not failing to note how the teenager's oddly colored eyes had followed him the entire time while he hurled abuse at Akira and how the shoulder tensed beneath his hand or that the most recent growl had been directed at him rather than his son. It would appear that problems at home had led to his attitude and likely criminal behavior.

"I strongly recommend that you let go of my son immediately." he said in his most authoritative tone.

In a move that was almost too quick to see, the teenager dropped his son and whirled to face him, his right hand going toward a sheath that was tucked into his belt. He had a sinking feeling that the handle poking out of it belonged to a very real weapon, and that things were going to start getting ugly very quickly.

The front door opened, and he could hear the Ishikawa girl who ran the register start to try to warn the arriving patron off.

"Inuyasha! Sit!" the recently arrived patron - quite likely a teenage girl - yelled.

Suddenly, the necklace that the boy who had been manhandling his son was wearing glowed brightly and the red clad teenager lost his balance when the thing abruptly lifted itself in the air and yanked itself forward and downwards on its on volition. As the teenager had been facing him when it happened, he soon found himself falling as well. He landed at a rather awkward angle, and the pain in his balls informed him that the teenager had quite likely landed face first in his lap.

The loud growl and the muffled swearing confirmed it.

The teenage boy recovered before he did, leaping from his rather awkward position like a scalded cat. A clawed hand snatched up the hat that had gone flying when he fell from the table. As the boy lifted the hat towards his head, his eyes were drawn to a pair of pointed ears that rested atop said boy's head. He saw one of them twitch in the instant before the hat was put back on.

Before he could think to say anything the boy raced away, snatching up an angry looking girl in a Junior High uniform in the process.

As he was getting up, he heard a voice whisper "I think it's safe".

There were several popping sounds and suddenly half his clientele had...transformed.

It was at that point that the police arrived. One officer stood in the doorway gaping like a fish while the other took the scene in calmly.

"Inuyasha's definitely been through here recently." the calm officer muttered.

He finally managed to gather the tattered remnants of his composure and collect himself enough to rise from the floor on which he had once again ended up when half the patrons of his supposedly reputable Go salon had transformed into what appeared to be a wide variety of youkai and dust himself off before greeting the police officers.

"The girl that the boy who caused the er...disturbance carried off did yell that a couple of times before they left." he said. It would seem that the boy who had nearly assaulted him was familiar to the police.

"It's a pity that me talking to them now would probably screw the timeline sideways and blow an Earth shaped hole in the universe. I've missed Kagome Nee-chan and Inuyasha Nii-chan so much, and I have so many things I want to say to them." the calm officer said, his voice breaking slightly.

He was beginning to wonder if his wife had put hallucinogenic mushrooms in his lunch. That was the only explanation he could find for how strange his day had gotten.

"Hey, Yoshida, let's go. Inuyasha's probably back in the Sengoku Jidai by now and there's nothing left to do here." the calm and apparently insane officer said.

The two officers left, the insane one grabbing the gaping one and dragging him away.

"Well rookie, I guess it's time you were let in on the little secret about the Youkai..." trailed after them.

Moments later, one of his better students amongst the elderly crowd walked in, bringing just a little bit of sanity and routine with him. The man stopped at the front desk, made a noise that sounded vaguely like "hn" and rather abruptly, he changed, snatching away that small bit of sanity as he did so.

Instead of the mildly stern old man who had soaked up his lessons like a sponge, there was a tall, regal looking man with long white hair, gold eyes, and a strange fluffy thing thrown over the ancient looking outfit complete with armor that had replaced his suit.

The man sniffed in an almost disdainful manner.

"Little brother's been through here." the not-so-old man said matter-of-factly.

A frog thing that had previously been a mid-level accountant suddenly looked up.

"Sesshomaru-sama! W-what a-are you doing here?" the frog thing yelled in an annoyingly high pitched voice that was sure to give him a headache to go with the still painful throbbing in his balls. What the hell had that teenager's head been made of? Granite?

"I promised Rin that I would look after her family." the man with the white hair said.

"But that was like fifteen of their generations ago." the frog thing whined.

"Your point being?" the man whose name was apparently Sesshomaru said coldly, one of his clawed hands twitching.

He decided, that there was no way in hell he was going to be able to deal with the events of the day sober. He grabbed his son and dragged him away, barely noting that the Ishikawa girl had grown a rather fluffy tail at some point.

"Ishikawa-san, tell great grandma Yukiko I said hi, and sorry that I can't play a game with her today." Akira said - apparently completely unfazed by the current situation - as he dragged him out the door.

(**!**)

OMAKE:

After many years, someday had come. Shindo Hikaru had spent the last couple of hours spilling his heart out about Sai to his eternal rival Toya Akira.

"Oh, is that all?" the Toya said, seeming non-plussed.

Hikaru stared at his rival in blank incomprehension for a moment.

"Is that all? Is that all, he says. Every time I ran this conversation through my head, you accused me of lying or being insane." Hikaru finally said.

"It explains why your game was so erratic in the beginning and why you were so depressed and quit playing for a while. Why should I disbelieve, much less be surprised that something like that happened to you, considering the fact that one of your ancestors was a Miko who was famous for putting the vengeful dead to rest. It's not like you corner the market on weird anyways. One of my great grandmothers on my mother's side of the family is a Yuki-Onna." Akira replied almost dismissively.

"Huh?" Hikaru said, his face going straight past confused and well into the territory of stupefied.

"Shut your mouth and play." Akira said pointing toward the previously abandoned Go board.

(**!**)

Sorry about all of the Youkai popping out of the woodwork, but when I first got an idea for the chapter, I had a mental image of Inuyasha getting pissed at Toya Akira about Komi, yelling at him to "stop making rules up" and ending the chapter with Jaken calling Sesshomaru over the fact that he's taking Go lessons when he already knew how to play the game, and Sesshomaru replying that he promised Rin that he'd look after her family. Things started taking a right turn at Albaquerque and drifting off into Bizzarro world when I actually started writing the chapter.


	3. Chapter 3

Kagome knew she shouldn't have, but it was the only thing she could think of to get some rest and relaxation in her own time during their quest. The instant Inuyasha learned that school was out for Summer Break, the jig would be up. She would have to find some way to distract him so he wouldn't find out for a good long while. She knew he liked playing Go despite the fact that it was an old man's game, however Inuyasha had been kicked out of just about every Go salon in the city.

It had been when she was fiddling around with Yuka's brother's computer that she stumbled on the answer. The computer had been connected to the internet, and Yuka had decided to show her how to use it. When she entered Igo into the search engine to see if she really could find just about anything, she had found several websites on which a person could play Go. This was perfect. All she had to do was find a way to show Inuyasha how to use a computer. Considering the fact that he could play video games with Souta, that shouldn't be too hard.

A week later, a new net Go legend was born.

&!&!&

It was during the middle of Summer Break that Sai received the challenge from the undefeated "Inuyasha". The name stirred a memory somewhere._ Middle aged man...clawed hands...played Torajiro, but looked directly at him._

He accepted the challenge and the game soon started. The game seemed familiar somehow.

_"This brings back memories of my youth..." ...captured stones tossed in the air in a casual and extremely disrespectful manner...a burning desire to crush this man and teach him to respect the game... "The days when Kagome and I..."...a choked off half sob and a look of incredible loss..._

All too soon, the game was over and Sai had won...barely.

_A crushing defeat...his... staring at the board completely dumbfounded..."When next we play, I'll be an arrogant child...funny really, thanks to the infinite mysteries of time our last game came before our first."_

Sai did something he hadn't done with any of his other opponents, he began a conversation. The only other time "Sai" had made a comment before, it had been Hikaru.

**Who are you?**

**Inutachi no Inuyasha**

Sai jerked back in surprise. Inuyasha of the dogs. Both meaningless and meaningful at the same time...he'd just played against a Youkai. He'd just played against a Youkai and won. Excitement stirred within him. While he had won, it had been close. He wanted to play again. He didn't want to play in this box, he wanted to play across a real board with his opponent facing him.

**I wish we could play face to face, but I know that you wouldn't want to be bothered nor I pursued...**

He received a riddle in reply. The language wasn't as old as the one he grew up with, but it was older than that of Torajiro's age. In the end, when he finally solved it, he realized that it was directions to a shrine that was within the boundaries of the city. The Youkai either wanted to play him again, or completely destroy him for having the temerity to defeat him. He found himself hoping that it was the former, but fearing the latter. But still, the chance to play another game that was every bit as wonderful as this one had been...

He just wouldn't tell Hikaru exactly what they were risking when they went.


	4. Chapter 4

"Tell me again, exactly why did we come here?" Hikaru asked his companion as he climbed the steps to a shrine he'd had no idea had existed until recently. One of his school friends had invited him to a game of soccer, but Sai hadn't stopped crying until he'd declined the invitation and gone where the ghost had wanted him to instead. It had taken three trips to the bathroom in which he learned that his lunch didn't taste half as good coming up as it had going down before he finally relented. After a couple buses, a short train ride, and his getting lost two times, he'd finally arrived at the shrine.

"Because I'm going to play Go!" Sai exclaimed happily as he bounced around like a hyperactive child in his excitement over the coming game.

"Great." Hikaru muttered. He'd gained an appreciation for the game in the months since he'd come to be haunted by the Heian Era ghost who was so obsessed with the game that it had rubbed off on him a bit, but he wanted time to do other things as well. So far, Sai had eaten up his entire Summer vacation.

Eventually, Hikaru had mounted the final step and was at the hilltop shrine. Not a moment too soon as far as he was concerned, as he was out of breath from his climb, and both his legs and feet hurt. Normally such a climb wouldn't bother him, but he had been inactive for far too long as he had been spending most of his days either in front of a computer or in front of a Go board instead of outside running about or kicking a soccer ball around.

The only person in sight was an elderly man who was sweeping the grounds of the shrine.

"I'm looking for Inuyasha." Hikaru said when the old man asked why he was here when he didn't go to immediately pay his respects or wander about like a tourist. As he answered the old man's question with the reply Sai had given, he couldn't help but wonder what kind of person would be cruel enough to name their child "Inuyasha".

"He went to run some errands for my daughter." the old man said. "He should be back any minute now. May I ask why you're looking for him?"

"I er, want to play Go with him." Hikaru replied. Actually it was the ghost that followed him everywhere, even to the toilet which he constantly exclaimed over despite the fact that he'd seen it a hundred times, that wanted to play with this Inuyasha fellow.

The old man laughed.

"I'll get the board set up." The old man said as he set his broom down and headed towards the residence that was attached to the shrine.

&!&!&!&

Sai fidgeted impatiently as he waited. It was one of the great many lapses in propriety that he had exhibited around his current host. There was just something about the boy that gave him a great deal of energy, and encouraged such behavior. He hadn't behaved in such a manner around Torajiro, but then again, Torajiro had been far more reserved. The fact that virtually nobody but Hikaru could see him had lowered his inhibitions a great deal as well. The new world he'd found himself in was incredibly exciting, and filled with wonders that were completely unimaginable in his lifetime. Manners had declined greatly enough in the century between Torajiro and Hikaru, that Hikaru didn't even notice his poor behavior.

Eventually, there was a flash of red, brown and white that sped into the house that was attached to the shrine. A moment later, an adolescent with white hair, gold eyes, claws on his hands, and claw tipped bare feet who was dressed in red emerged from the house. As he examined the "boy" who was talking to Hikaru, something about his Youkai opponent hit him.

"Hanyou." he said when he finally processed the thought. His opponent wasn't a full blooded youkai. Based on his appearance, he was anywhere between fifteen and five-hundred years old depending on which side of the family he had inherited his aging from, and how powerful his youkai parent had been.

The hanyou whirled around to face him, apparently noticing him for the first time. The hanyou looked him up and down, and there was a look of bitterness on his face as he did so.

"What's with the ghost?" the hanyou asked.

"He's the one that wants to play against you." Hikaru replied.

"He any good?" the hanyou asked as he sized him up.

"He used to be Go instructor to the Emperor." Hikaru replied.

"Feh. Whatever." the hanyou said as he gestured for him and Hikaru to follow him into the house. "If you try cheating with that Komi bullshit, I won't play with you again."


	5. Chapter 5

Sai settled into the spot he usually occupied when Hikaru was asleep, usually this was a time of boredom or sadness as he reflected on his plight, because as a ghost he was unable to sleep. Not so tonight, as he had something new and exciting to occupy himself with. While Hikaru dreamed of flying mushrooms fighting a war with a bowl of ramen - something he was peripherally aware of due to his link with the boy - Sai replayed the game he had played just that afternoon in his mind several times, going over what he would have done differently if he could have played that game all over again.

Inuyasha had been loud, and disrespectful in the extreme. Much like Hikaru in fact. Barring differences in appearance and species, he'd almost be willing to swear that the two were brothers, so alike they were. Despite his exceedingly poor manners which included tossing captured stones in his off hand, the hanyou Inuyasha played an excellent game. More than excellent.

He hadn't felt like he'd been backed against a wall like that since...

Inuyasha's game however had been an honest one, and there had been no outside pressure or false accusations of cheating to add to the tension.

He had won in the end however, if only just. It had been a hard won victory though, and he had been forced to fight for every point of territory against a being to whom Go seemed to come almost as naturally as breathing.

He would find a way to play with the hanyou once again, even if it was the last thing he and Hikaru did. It probably wouldn't be though, as both Inuyasha and Hikaru seemed to have taken a bit of a shine to each-other. The grandson of the shrinekeeper had taken a bit of a shine to Hikaru as well, so a return visit from himself and Hikaru wouldn't be an entirely unwelcome one.

He would start on Hikaru in the morning. He would have to be careful though. Too much whining, and Hikaru would become completely desensitized and would eventually start ignoring him. Make him vomit one too many times, and Hikaru would become far more serious in his attempts at ridding himself of him.

Hikaru had seemed somewhat enamored with the collection of "video games" that the shrinekeeper's grandson owned...

&!&!&!&

As Inuyasha sat guard on the roof of the Higurashi home, he contemplated the events of the day. That ghost had played a mean game of Go. He'd given it his all, and he still lost. It was no wonder the guy had been Go instructor to the emperor when he'd been alive.

His mother had told him he was a natural at the game when they played together. Shortly before she died, he had been able to defeat her - if only just - when they played evenly, which was considered quite the accomplishment, because his mother played at a level that was better than the best players in his grandfather's - and later his uncle's - court.

For a while, he'd been rusty, not having played the game in well over a century, but he'd eventually got his groove back and gotten back where he used to be. Where he used to be wasn't good enough to defeat the ghost however.

The ghost who was one heck of an enigma...

He was used to not getting _the look_ from people of Kagome's time, as they hadn't seen a youkai in so long that they had forgotten they existed and didn't recognize him for what he was. He got different looks from the people of this age who only saw a juvenile delinquent when they gazed upon him, rather than a creature who belonged neither to the race or man nor to the race of youkai.

He was not used to not getting _the look_ from someone who knew full well what he was. It had only been after the game had started and he was in that strangely calm state that he only reached while playing Go that he'd realized that when the ghost had called him hanyou, it had been a statement of fact rather than an epithet. When he looked into his opponent's eyes after coming to this realization, he found the ghost completely focused on the game.

It would be interesting to play the ghost again, if only so he could beat him like he should have. If he hadn't made that stupid mistake in the middle of the game when Kagome had distracted him by making herself some instant ramen, he would have...Probably.

He had Fujiwara's host's scent. He'd be able to track the boy down despite the million foul odors that clung to the air and buildings and the very earth of this city if he became that desperate for a game. He never would, but still...


End file.
